<p>“Would not being an undergrad at a college with an outstanding medical school be an advantage, though? In being admitted to the med school later on, or in finding mentors for research or lab work that would be useful later on?”
-I frankly do not know. The reason is that D’s UG did NOT have ANY Med. School, outstanding or not. It did not prevent her and her classmates to get accepted to several Med. Schools, including top 20. Again, IT IS ALL UP TO YOU. Get your high GPA, decent MCAT and cover other requirements and NOBODY can take your acceptance from you. Another side of the coin, go to the very top UG, do not get required stats/do not participate in ECs like other pre-meds and you will get nowhere, I guaranteee you that, I have examles of that. More so, UG’s pre-med committee at this top prestigious UG may not even let you to apply if you do not have what it takes based on their opinion. They value their reputation much more than your acceptance. This is one of their responsibilites and they are not going to loose their job over one student who decided not to work as hard as it is needed.
This is the facts that nobody can ignore. Where you go for UG is up to you. How hard you will have to work to get into Med. School is NOT, you will work extremely hard NO MATTER where you are.
I do not know many facts about other fields. but the same is applicable to some others. The examples are engineering, IT, nursing. The cheapest option will do just fine.
This discussion is steering focus in the politically correct direction that is NOT a good mind set for the student who can afford only certain UG (actually this apply to the most of them). The politically incorrect direction that will work very well is self-reliance. Yes, work hard, get the best out of your UG and you will be where you want to be. Is there anything else that matters? Sorry, it will not work for those with the dream of having Harvard permanently attached to their own name, they will have to find the way to fund their dream, I am sure that Harvard is very perceptive to the top kids who are poor. Somebody who I know is on the Merit full ride at John Hopkins. If this is NOT the top school, then I am not sure which one is. If Harvard would want this type of kid on it’s campus, I assume, they would show some love also. And again, many of these very top kids simply do not care to apply even if they can afford it. Very, very many…</p>